


kiss the feathers of a hummingbird in flight

by kimaracretak



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Established Relationship, F/F, Intimacy, Nature Magic, Spooky, The Grey Hunt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-13
Updated: 2018-10-13
Packaged: 2019-07-27 05:43:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16212641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kimaracretak/pseuds/kimaracretak
Summary: Loving Vex means sharing her with the Grey Hunt, but Keyleth isn't willing to let her go alone.





	kiss the feathers of a hummingbird in flight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [awpizzadog](https://archiveofourown.org/users/awpizzadog/gifts).



The moon has slipped away to set behind the Parchwood when Keyleth pads her way over to Vex's room, Minxie's claws eerily silent against the oft-echoing stones of the castle halls. She nudges open the door with her head, the soft creaking sound muffled, too, in the odd stillness of the night.

Something is coming. Something is changing. And all Keyleth knows is that she needs Vex, needs to see her, touch her, feel her heart's blood under her skin.

The room is in shadows, the fire long died and the moonlight a mere echo, and for a moment, as Minxie's eyes fix on the figure slumped against the headboard, she cannot shake the feeling that she is the only living thing in all of Whitestone.

But then Vex's form shifts, responds to the changed atmosphere of the room that Minxie has brought with her, the corridor air sweeping into disturb the stillness of a room not quite the castle's anymore.

"Keyleth," Vex says hoarsely, and the bedsheets rustle as she opens her arms.

Minxie hesitates at the threshold, even her tiger's slow brain sensing that something in the room has gone sideways. But Keyleth nudges her forward, until Minxie can crouch and spring onto Vex's wide, soft bed, the springs momentarily protesting the extra weight.

"Hi," Vex whispers, looping her arms around Minxie's neck and burying her face in her fur. Keyleth huffs softly against her cheek, places one huge paw on Vex's leg.

_Don't go._

Minxie's clumsy mouth can't shape the words, but her paw on Vex's leg is enough for her to understand.

"I have to, darling," she whispers. "Look. Look at Fenthras. The Hunt needs me tonight."

Fenthras is leaning against the wall, strung and ready, shadows dripping from the carved wood like something alive. They pool on the floor like vines, cast by a light invisible, or perhaps simply by the gleam in Vex's eye.

Keyleth knows, somewhere deep in her heart where the earth has taken root and never been dislodged, that nothing living waits for Vex in the forest tonight.

Nothing quite dead waits, either.

Vex, who still hasn't let go of her, seems to know the same, but she's made a peace with it that Keyleth cannot fathom. She's grown more comfortable with spaces in-between the closer her brother grows to the Raven Queen, and in ways Keyleth can't express it feels like a loss, like Vex is slipping further away from her and the natural world they once shared without a thought.

Vex shifts beneath her, raises her head and releases Minxie's neck the better to scritch behind her ears. Keyleth purrs contentedly at the feeling, but sees Vex's attempt at distracting her for what it is. She sighs, stretches, and feels the familiar prickling across her skin as her fur recedes, her legs lengthen and her spine stretch until she's only Keyleth again, with her head in Vex's lap.

"You're less of an obstactle like this, darling," Vex warns her, but she still doesn't attempt to get up.

"You were going to go anyway," Keyleth says, and though she's not a stranger to obligations she can't help but hate the Hunt that turns Vex from something wild and free and dangerous into a weapon of its own. "I can come with you like this."

"You shouldn't," Vex says, but there's enough of a hint of uncertainty in her voice that Keyleth thinks she'd probably welcome the company. "The Hunt - I've always gone alone. I'm supposed to go alone."

Her voice strengthens on the last words, layered with something old and cracking, and before she can think the better of it Keyleth surges up to kiss the strange words out of her mouth.

Vex makes a soft noise of surprise but kisses her back, pulls Keyleth to sit more firmly in her lap. Keyleth cups Vex's breasts, feels their - _alive, alive_ \- weight reassuringly solid in her hands, traces her tongue across Vex's lips and tastes her - _alive, alive_ \- bright like winter berries when she opens her mouth for Keyleth.

"The Hunt can eat me," Keyleth says, when the need for air drives them apart, and then she shivers at the phrasing. "I mean ... I mean. It doesn't matter, I'm coming with you, the Parchwood isn't a place you go alone even when you're so powerful, Vex, you need -"

"Keyleth, darling, shh." Vex presses another kiss to her lips to quiet her, soft and lingering. "The Parchwood's my responsibility, as is Whitestone, as Zephra is yours. If something were to happen to you out there I would -"

"I can take care of myself," Keyleth scowls. "You're worried too, aren't you? You wouldn't be trying to get me to stay if you weren't."

Vex doesn't answer for a long moment, gaze fixed on her bow across the room. The shadows on the floor around Fenthras seem to have deepend, twisted, now spread out in the image of a tree that holds just as much death as the corpses its physical trees have sprung from. "He's usually silver," she says finally. "When the hunt calls. Whatever I'm chasing, it's always been silver so far."

She doesn't say what they both know, that there is no colour to be found anywhere in her room tonight. Keyleth's flaming hair, the blinding blue of the feathers piled on the mantlepiece, even the soft lilac of the shield the visiting Lyceum members maintain over the city centre - all washed out to grey.

"I'm coming," Keyleth says with as much finality as she can muster, maneuvering herself off of Vex's lap with as much grace as she can muster. "Get dressed, if you really have to go. Please?" She can't stop her voice from shaking, the effort of keeping back other words, don't go, so much more than she was prepared for.

Vex kicks the covers to the foot of the bed, places her hand over Keyleth's and doesn't quite meet her eyes.

"Well," she says, and Keyleth squeezes her hand. Which one of them she means to comfort, she doesn't know. "I suppose we must, then."

Keyleth watches the strong line of her back as she gets out of bed, and hopes she hasn't made a mistake.


End file.
